Bears Pile In: Quarter-End Short Surge

Short sellers turned aggressive into quarter-end. Several names saw their short interest spike sharply over the past seven days.

Wolfspeed stands out as the most extreme. Short interest hit 130% of free float — up from 103% a week ago. Availability has collapsed to zero. Cost to borrow sits at 8.7%. Bears are clearly running out of shares to short, yet demand keeps rising.

Frontier Group saw short interest jump +8.6 percentage points to 42% of free float. The budget airline is a social media favourite this week, with its stock drawing heavy chatter on trading forums.

Restaurant Brands International — owner of Burger King and Tim Hortons — posted the biggest surprise. SI leapt from 6.6% to 14.8% of free float in just seven days. That's a +8.2pp move on a $25bn market cap name.

Lucid Group continues to attract bears. SI hit 39.2%, up from 32%. Cost to borrow spiked to 77.9% APR — shares are extremely hard to find.

On the other side, Avis Budget saw shorts cover sharply. SI dropped from 48% to 40% of free float in a week — a notable squeeze signal.

Today is quarter-end. Rebalancing flows and earnings-driven positioning are pushing short interest swings in both directions.